My Two Big Finishes

When my computer was unusable, I download pics from my card to another computer in the house. I will figure out how go get them back here, where they belong. They were my quilting-in-progress on this quilt.

I am curious about you other quilters. How do you decide to make a quilt? I usually see a picture of one and want to make one similar. Often it is years before I actually cut the first piece for said quilt. Sometimes (in this case), I see a fabric I LOVE and want to use it.

The fabric used for the "sashing" between the pieced rows here is an ancient Thimbleberries print. Naturally it had been out of print for years before I intended to use it. Thanks to the modern-day miracle called eBay, I found a two-yard long piece. I wanted to use every inch I could. The stripes are 72" long, and then I added the last two strips of the stripe at the top and bottom.

This was one of my early leader/ender projects as well. I had a box of 2" squares next to my machine that I would use as L/E. I chose only colors that matched the stripes.

I wanted to share some previous posts about this quilt. I only found one. It was the beginning of my machine quilting that went wrong. So I guess I started piecing this pre-2007.

I machine quilted the pieced sections with "peacock feathers" and meandered the rest. While this did not turn out exactly as I anticipated, I still like it very much.

Here is a close-up taken outside. There are little tan birdes, blue flowers, and raspberries in the strip.

Then there is my Grass is Always Greener quilt. This is backed with a luxurious, soft, light green flannel. The 4-patches in cream triangles are hand-quilted. The rest of the quilt is machine quilted with green thread. See my story about this quilt here.

Both these quilts are about 60" wide by 80" long. Nice throw sizes.

Take a nap now.

~Joan

More Hand Quilting

Here is my other hand-quilting project. I call this The Grass is Always Greener (Click on the link to see all past posts for this quilt). To explain the quilting...I did a machine-stitched meander quilting in all the green areas. Everywhere except for the cream and the 4-patch inside of it.

I don't like the quilts to have varying amounts of puffiness, so I am hand quilting in the ditch around the cream square and an "X" through the 4-patch from corner to corner on each block. I am marking in the cream area with a water soluble marker to make it easy to see and remove.

Since I had several hours to quilt this past Sunday afternoon (stayed at church with nothing to do, boo hoo), I am over half finished with the blocks. The binding is sewn down by hand about 1/4 of the way around, too.

Closer...four of the blocks that have been quilted...

...and closer still. This was an incredibly easy block to piece. The book I got the pattern from had a lot of neat tips in it for making this block a piece of cake.

My only "recipe" for the color layout was that I did not use greens in the outermost part of the block. That is because they were surrounded by greens, and the design would have been lost if they blended in.





I have always been partial to wearing green clothes because I have green eyes. Now I guess that gives me license to wear this quilt around the house...or not.

~Joan

So Sad...

There is no picture for this post. I started machine quilting my Grass is Always Greener quilt last night. I was so happy to finally get it loaded on the quilt frame and rev up the machine for those first stitches. The machine was skipping stitches something fierce. I put in a new needle, only to find it was worse!

My husband happens to be going by the repairman's shop today, so he is going to drop it off for me. Meanwhile, I'm sure I can find some other things to do!

~Joan

Steps and Stars...All Blocks Finished

Here are my blocks laid out the way I want them. The only thing I did with the layout was made sure that the light blue logs weren't near each other and that no two same-color star blocks were neighbors. I might make a few more changes, but I'm happy with this. After a 5" border, it will measure around 60" x 80".

In more quilt-related news, I pieced, washed, dried, and ironed a flannel backing for my Grass is Greener quilt. It's a beautiful Thimbleberries light green.

The reason I like blogging is that it is a journal for ME. I can look back at the progress of my projects in living color!! I just realized that I never posted a picture of the completed Grass is Greener quilt. I used the same darker green as the sashing for the inner border, then used my favorite (now out of print) Thimbleberries medium green for the outer border. The blocks for that were so much easier than I would have thought they were.

Before I even get a quilt finished and bound, I start piecing two or three more. Is it possible I need therapy??

~Joan, who really doesn't want an answer to that question.

Greener Grass Needs Two More Borders!

This is my Greener Grass quilt center. All it lacks to be a complete top is another border of the dark green inner border fabric and then a light green wide outer border. I really like this. I have a lovely green flannel that I will use to back it. See the original pattern picture here to understand the two final borders. It is about 47" x 53" here.

You probably know this, but if you want to see all posts on a particular subject, click on it under the signature at the end of the post...it's underlined and comes after "Labels:".

~Joan

Greener Grass Center Blocks Pieced

Here is the center of my Greener Grass quilt. I finished piecing all the blocks this AM. I am thinking about putting a cream border around these before the other blocks instead of a dark border like in the picture of the original. Even though these are some of the lightest greens in the Thimbleberries lines, they are still dark compared to everything else.

Stay tuned...

~Joan

Greener Grass Original Picture

Here is my Greener Grass (short for the Grass is Always Greener) original quilt picture from the book, "Save the Scraps". While I think the pink is lovely, I don't have a place for it in my present life.

The blocks are 9" unfinished, and the finished quilt is 64" x 72".

Much to do, not enough time to do it.

~Joan

Another Scrappy Quilt Underway

Here is my latest scrap quilt. While I'm piecing something else (in this case the Mosaic Baby) I always have another scrap quilt in the works (at least partially cut) so that I can use the new units as leader/enders as I piece.

This is from the same book as Another Mosaic and is called Spring Break. I am going to call it The Grass is Always Greener or maybe Greener Grass.

I'll take a pic of the original quilt some time. Where I have green outer triangles, the original has light pink. I don't have pink in my public rooms, so green works for me. Special thanks to my sister for parting with 2 pieces of her lightest green Thimbleberries for me.

Off for a delicious supper...
~Joan